Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89

Paywall-free link: https://archive.today/Toq4Y

That's got to be one of the greatest legacies in all human history. No politician or other empire-builder comes close.

I don’t think many people know about or remember the 2003 smallpox vaccination campaign.¹

> The campaign aimed to provide the smallpox vaccine to those who would respond to an attack, establishing Smallpox Response Teams and using DryVax (containing the NYCBOH strain) to mandatorily vaccinate half a million American military personnel, followed by half a million health care worker volunteers by January 2004. The first vaccine was administered to then-President George W. Bush.

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_United_States_smallpox_va...

Except it wasn't eradicated. It's still stored at the US's Fort Detrick, and in Russian and Chinese bioweapons facilities, too be released as a bioweapon, now that no one has natural immunity anymore.

Just in time to roll over in his grave.

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I'm starting to think that we should be calling it "contained", not "eradicated". Eradication invites the question "Well then, why do we still need the vaccine?"